


Abandoned

by teej_318



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Abusive Parents, Boys Hugging, Comfort, Everyone hates Lonnie Byers, Fluff, Forehead Kisses, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Jonathan is the best bro, Joyce is the best mom, Karen is supportive too, Lonnie Byers is canceled, Loss of Parent(s), M/M, Mike is the best friend, Protective Jonathan Byers, Protective Mike Wheeler, Sad Will Byers, Tooth Rotting Fluff, Trigger warning for the f slur, What happened when Lonnie left, boys holding hands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-12
Updated: 2019-09-12
Packaged: 2020-10-14 23:54:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20609438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teej_318/pseuds/teej_318
Summary: Mike Wheeler goes to comfort his second family, the Byers, after Lonnie walks out on them.





	Abandoned

“Goodnight, Mikey, I’ll see you later,” Will said as he gave Mike a hug, which Mike returned just as strongly. Will was sad that Mike wouldn’t be able to sleep over that night.

“Yeah, Willie, I’ll see you soon,” Mike said when they broke the hug and gave Will a warm smile. 

Will felt his face heat up as he smiled back at Mike, who turned and walked toward his mom’s car. Once Mike had opened the door, he turned back and waved at Will. Will returned the wave with a sad smile as he watched Mike get into the car. He remained on the porch until Mrs. Wheeler’s car disappeared down the road and started to feel chilly. Will walked back into his house and shut the door behind him. 

As he walked through the kitchen, Will winced when he heard the familiar sound of his father slamming his bottle of beer on the dining table. Will shut his eyes for half a second, trying to calm his nerves, before he tried to continue on to his bedroom, not wanting to fight with his father.

“Hold on a second there, kid, we need to talk,” Lonnie growled.

“About what?” Will asked, trying not to sound annoyed. Lonnie’s face already looked angry and any confidence Will might have had to fight back instantly vanished. Will felt nothing but fear coursing through his body. He was grateful his mother was outside playing catch with Jonathan; otherwise, he’d have to endure a fight with Lonnie on his own, but if his mother and brother heard, they would intervene.

“About that hug you gave that boy,” Lonnie replied. “You know that shit isn’t allowed in this house.”

“Why can’t I hug my best friend?” Will demanded, despite the level of fear he felt. 

“Because I’m not raising you to be a faggot!” Lonnie shrieked.

Will opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by the sound of his mother’s voice.

“What the hell is going on here?” Joyce yelled. “Why are you calling our son that word?”

“I’m not, Joyce. I just told him that I’m not raising him to be one!”

“I told you that you’re not to use that word in this house!”

“Oh yeah? Are you gonna behave like my mother now, Joyce, is that it?” Lonnie said as he stood up and approached his wife. Unlike their youngest son, however, Joyce stood her ground, as if she were eager to get into an argument with Lonnie on behalf of Will. 

“Well, someone has to be if you’re gonna sit here and behave like a high school bully, Lonnie. Jesus, Hopper was right: you never did grow up!”

“Oh that is so  _ fucking _ typical of you to bring him up, Joyce!” Lonnie shouted.

Soon, Lonnie and Joyce were shouting over each other. Jonathan hurried over to Will and tugged him out of the kitchen as their parents fought. The boys ended up in Jonathan’s room and sat down together on the bed.

“What happened, Will? Did he hit you again?”

Will shook his head, still too scared to speak. Jonathan reached over and grabbed onto Will’s hand. 

“Hey, it’s okay, Will. Mom will get him to get over whatever he was yelling about. Until then, you can just stay in here, okay?”

Will nodded and gave Jonathan a nervous smile as Jonathan stood up and turned on his stereo, trying to drown out the noise of Joyce and Lonnie’s voices. When Jonathan sat back down on the bed, Will turned to face him again.

“I gave Mike a hug when he left. That’s why he got mad.”

Jonathan frowned.

“Seriously? He got mad at you for hugging your best friend? What’s wrong with him?”

“He just told me he didn’t want to raise a f-”

“ _ Don’t _ say that word, Will, especially when you’re talking about yourself,” Jonathan said in a stern voice. “You hear me? I don’t ever want to hear you talk about yourself using that word.”

“What if it was true, Jonathan? Would you still say the same thing?”

“Of course I would, Will,” Jonathan said without any hesitation in his tone. “You’re my brother and I love you. And Mom loves you. And nothing will ever change that, you understand?”

Will nodded, but he couldn’t help but notice that Jonathan didn’t say anything about their father loving him. But he chose to ignore this for now and just try to listen to the music with his brother. The two sat together on Jonathan’s bed, bobbing their heads along to the music and occasionally glancing at each other and grinning during good moments in the music. 

Their ignorance of the outside world came to a tumbling end near the end of one song when they head Lonnie’s voice reverberate through the entire house. 

“FINE! I’M LEAVING YOU, YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF TRASH! I HOPE I NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN!”

Will glanced up at Jonathan, feeling more scared than he ever had in his entire life. Jonathan looked scared too as he hurried to the radio and turned the volume down. They both listened earnestly and heard the front door slam. A few seconds later, they heard Lonnie’s truck start up and drive away from the house. Once they were sure their father was gone, Jonathan led Will across the room and back to the kitchen, where their mother was still standing in a stunned silence, glaring at the spot where Lonnie had been standing when they were fighting. The boys approached Joyce hesitantly, not sure if they had heard Lonnie correctly when he said that he was leaving.

“Mom?” Jonathan asked in a nervous voice.

Joyce blinked and seemed to shake herself out of a stupor. She gave Jonathan a smile that looked forced.

“Everything’s okay, honey,” Joyce said. “Your father just needs a little time to cool down.”

“Where did he go?” Will asked, not sure if he wanted to hear the answer.

“He just needed to get some air. He’ll be back soon, honey.”

As Joyce hugged him, Will couldn’t help but sense that his mother wasn’t telling him the truth and was trying to shield him from it. He wasn’t sure if he was grateful for it or not.

* * *

Karen strode across the kitchen as the phone started ringing. Ted, as usual, was asleep in the recliner while Mike was distracted by a movie he was watching in the basement and Nancy was reading a book upstairs in her bedroom. Karen sighed. Never mind that she was pregnant with her third child, but she was still expected to do everything in her household. She picked the phone from off the receiver and tried her best not to sound too annoyed.

“Hello, Wheeler residence,” she said in a dull tone. 

“Oh, Karen, thank goodness,” came the relieved voice of Joyce Byers. “Is Mike at home today?”

“Yeah, he’s downstairs in the basement, do you want me to go and get him?”

“Actually, could you bring him over here? As soon as you can?”

“Well sure, Joyce. I’m sure Mike would love to hang out with Will. He wasn’t too happy that he couldn’t stay the night last night. Maybe we’ll let him stay the night tonight so we don’t have to hear him complain so much.”

“Actually, that would be great if he could,” Joyce said, sounding relieved.

Karen frowned.

“Is something wrong, Joyce? You sound like you’re stressed.”

“No, I’m fine. It’s just Will; he’s pretty upset, Karen. Lonnie left me last night. I mean, he always threatens that he is, but he left yesterday evening after we had a fight and he hasn’t come back or even tried to call, so I think it might be true now.”

“Oh my goodness, Joyce, I’m so sorry! Is there anything I can do?”

“I’m gonna be fine, Karen, but Will thinks it’s his fault. He won’t stop crying, no matter what I say. I think Mike will be able to help him better than I can.”

“Of course,” Karen said, sounding determined. “I’ll go and get Mike from the basement and tell him to pack a bag. He can stay with you as long as Will needs him.”

“Thank you, Karen, you’re a lifesaver.”

* * *

Mike set down his bag as soon as his mother had said goodbye to Mrs. Byers.

“Where is he?” Mike demanded, sounding worried.

“He’s in his room. Maybe you can get him to calm down, Mike. Just be gentle with him. Don’t force him to talk if he doesn’t want to.”

Mike nodded.

“I’ll just make sure that he knows I’m here for him,” he said. Mike hesitated before he hurried over to Mrs. Byers and pulled her into a quick hug.

“What was that for?” she asked, looking confused but touched by Mike’s gesture.

“I know you must be hurting too,” Mike explained. “I didn’t want you to feel bad that he left.”

Mike blushed when he saw tears form in Mrs. Byers’ eyes and he looked down at his shoes until he felt her lift his head and give him a kiss on the forehead.

“Thank you for that, Mike. You’re very sweet. And thank you for coming to take care of Will. Now, go see him, and don’t worry about me.”

“What about Jonathan?”

“I’ll make sure he’s okay. Now, go!”

Mike nodded before he turned and hurried to Will’s room. He paused outside the closed door and heard soft crying coming from inside. Mike sighed before he knocked gently on the door.

“Will? Can I come in?”

He didn’t get a response, but the crying continued. Mike carefully opened the door and eased his way into the room. Immediately, his eyes caught Will sitting on his bed crying and Mike felt his heart break in two because of his friend’s sadness. Mike hurried over to Will’s bed and sat down next to Will. Will looked up and when he saw it was Mike, his eyes widened and he hurriedly started wiping his face, hoping Mike wouldn’t see the tears.

“Hey, hey, hey,” Mike said gently, reaching out and grabbing Will’s hands and pulling them away from Will’s face. Will frowned at Mike. “You don’t have to hide the tears from me, Will. It’s okay for you to cry. I know what happened.”

At this, Will dissolved into fresh tears. Mike wrapped his arms around Will and pulled him in for a tight hug. Mike held Will for nearly half an hour as Will continued crying and shaking. Finally, Will calmed down and Mike broke the hug so he could talk to Will.

“Are you okay, Willie?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Will replied. “It’s my fault, Mikey. If I hadn’t hugged you yesterday, he wouldn’t have left.”

Mike shut his eyes for a split second as he digested the reason for the fight between the Byers parents. He tightened his grip around Will and pulled the boy closer to him.

“Listen to me, Will: It’s not your fault, okay? You and I didn’t do anything wrong just because we hugged. If your Dad left because of that, it’s his fault, not yours, do you understand?”

“I guess so,” Will said in a smile voice that made Mike’s heart ache for his friend. “I just don’t want anyone else to leave me.”

“That won’t happen, Will,” Mike said in a determined voice as he grabbed one of Will’s hands and laced their fingers together. “I promise you, your Mom and Jonathan aren’t going to leave you, Will. And I will never leave you. No matter what happens, we will always be best friends, Will. I promise.” 

Will nodded as more tears fell down his face. Mike gently wiped them away and gave Will a warm smile.

“I’m gonna stay the night tonight. And I can stay as long as you need me to, okay?”

“Thanks, Mikey. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

* * *

Mike shuffled his things around as he spread out his sleeping bag on Will’s bedroom floor. He had just gotten everything situated when Will returned to the room. Mike glanced up at Will and grinned at him.

“Hey,” he said pleasantly. 

“Um ...Mike?” Will asked, sounding incredibly nervous.

“What’s up, Will?” Mike asked, frowning.

“Um, do you think you could sleep in my bed with me tonight? I don’t wanna be alone, and I know I’m gonna have bad dreams, but if you’re there and I wake up, I’ll feel better, but I don’t wanna be weird…”

To Will’s surprise, Mike was smiling at him fondly as he stood up.

“Of course I will, if that’s what you want,” Mike said, standing up and walking over to Will’s bed. 

Will smiled as he walked over to his bed and got into it with Mike. They bumped bodies a handful of times, giggling, as they adjusted themselves under the blanket. It had been a few years since they had shared a bed and both of them had grown since then, but they were still able to fit comfortably. Mike turned himself around so that he was facing Will, who was blushing slightly.

“You okay?” Mike asked gently.

“I think I will be.”

“I’m glad to hear that. If you have any bad dreams, just wake me up, okay? I don’t care how tired I am. I just want to make sure you’re all right.”

“Okay, Mikey,” Will said as he closed his eyes.

Mike reached over and laced his and Will’s fingers together again. He hesitated as he leaned over Will before giving his best friend a soft kiss on the forehead.

“G’night, Mikey. I love you,” Will mumbled sleeplily.

Mike grinned as he lay back down on his pillow.

“Goodnight, Willie. I love you too.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I just had to at the end with that forehead kiss and the boys saying they love each other! But I leave it to you readers to interpret if they meant it romantically or just friendly (they're not together in this yet, but they still love each other).
> 
> Come yell at/follow me on Tumblr: [@wackywriterwhowriteswhenever](http://wackywriterwhowriteswhenever.tumblr.com)
> 
> You can also follow me [on Twitter](http://twitter.com/_tj_rigg) but just know that I'm super political on there, so don't follow me if you don't like politics.


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